County leads in protecting waterwaysRegarding your...

the Forum

Regarding your article, "Golf course grading 'buries' trout stream" (Oct. 5), I have personally inspected the stream referred to and I must say that the picture reporter Tim Wheeler painted is inaccurate

First, areas with the worst damage had sediment deposits of less than three inches in the slower pools of the stream. In more than 4,000 feet of stream only 2,500 feet had enough sediment to warrant removal.

The suggestion that the incident raises questions about how well the county is protecting its waterways from development is unfounded, in my opinion. In fact, it is clear that the incident shows more than anything that the county is doing an excellent job of protecting its waterways. The fact that the county required timely removal of sediment from the stream has greatly minimized the potential for any long-term impact on this important resource. The article also failed to mention that restoration of streams after sediment damage is unheard of anywhere but in Baltimore County.

As a longtime member of Trout Unlimited, I have watched the development of protection measures for streams in the county over the past three years with great relief. We have seen that the newly formed Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management has developed policies that are really working to protect streams from the impact of development.

Allan Dale III

The writer is president of the Maryland chapter of Trout Unlimited. G

The real problems

I simply cannot understand why President Bush seems to be wasting his time on all kinds of trivial stuff - like the budget deficit (which everyone knows would disappear if rich people didn't have to pay taxes and could use that money instead to create more jobs for the people who should pay the taxes); and like the S&L crisis (which happened because of too much government regulation and bureaucratic red tape); and like the Persian Gulf crisis (which Iraq is trying to help settle and which was Israel's fault because it occupied some land won when Arabs attacked).

Why can't the president keep his eye on the ball like the Gipper did - doesn't he know it's still "Morning in America"? Let's stop all this pessimistic nonsense and quit moaning and groaning.

Forget the deficit, S&Ls and Saddam Hussein. The real problems - which President Bush seems to conveniently forget - are those treacherous flag-burners and people like Willie Horton (you know who I mean). I bet Dan Quayle still remembers what's important. And if he doesn't, there are plenty of "right"-thinking people on the White House staff to remind him.

Stanley Katz

Baltimore

Heinous laws

I read in The Evening Sun on Oct. 10 that the Maryland Cour of Appeals ruled that sexual acts such as sodomy are not crimes when performed in private by consenting heterosexual adults without money changing hands.

This is discrimination against homosexuals once again. As someone said, "If that is the law, the law is an ass".

When are the legislature, which enacts heinous laws like this, and the Maryland Court of Appeals, which rules on their stupidity, going to emerge from the dark ages into the 20th century and stay the hell out of our bedrooms!

Don Vance

Baltimore

Bias against Israel

It is certainly gratifying to know that the Herbert Scism, author of the Oct. 9 letter, "Expose Israel," is sensitive to the pain of the so-called Palestinians.

However, I am forced to ask if Scism is equally sensitive to the victims of the events in Europe that led to the establishment of the state of Israel. I am also forced to ask whether his sensitivity for things Arab was based on his ignorance of the fact that a large part of the Jewish portion of the population of Israel came from the Arab countries, when they were forced to flee in terror in 1948. Finally, I am forced to ask whether solicitude for the Arab cause in the Western world is theologically based. I suspect that it is.

Paul L. Brodsky

Baltimore

Feeling rejected

Regarding R. Richard Banks' article "The legacy of racism, the scars, live within" (Oct. 8), who among us has not been frustrated by a superior's refusal to recognize something we consider to be a "brilliant idea"? Therefore, we look for ulterior motives. Try being a middle-aged, white woman in today's youth-oriented society if you want to feel rejected!

Mr. Banks offers no hope for harmonious race relations as long as we accept people's perceptions as facts, i.e., "I know I would excel more where I white, or he black."